Telecommunications carriers provide service within specific geographic areas. The geographic areas are called exchanges and are subdivided into one or more geographic area called wire centers. The wire centers are further subdivided into geographic areas called customer serving areas (CSAs). Exchange areas, wire center areas, and customer serving areas are represented in various software management systems as polygons having nodes and lines connecting the nodes to form a region or area.
To manage and service customers of the telecommunications carrier within the exchanges, accurate records of the boundaries for the exchanges, wire centers, and customer service areas must be kept. Accurate records of the areas means that every part of an exchange be included in only one of the one or more wire centers that subdivide the exchange area. In addition, every part of a wire center area is to be included in only one of the customer serving areas that subdivide the wire center. FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary geographic region 100 over which a telecommunications carrier services customers. Wire center Cripple Creek 102 is shown to be adjacent to wire centers Rural Retreat 104, Wytheville 106, Austinville 108, Fries 110, and Corners Rock 112. Each wire center is further divided into customer serving areas, designated by a three-digit number (e.g., 001, 002, 003, etc.).
From time to time, in the normal course of administering a telecommunications services within exchange areas, wire center and customer serving area boundaries are changed. One customer serving area may be enlarged while adjacent customer serving area(s) are reduced in size. In effect, the area defining one customer serving area is transferred or redefined, which may cause a portion of the area to be in another customer serving area. In addition, existing customer serving areas may be subdivided into two or more smaller customer serving areas. There are many possible changes to existing customer serving areas that effectively change the boundaries of one or more existing customer serving area. Just as customer servicing area boundaries may change, wire center area boundaries may also change.
The nodes and lines that define an area boundary may be represented in different ways. One common method is to define a node as a specific latitude and longitude coordinate pair. Commercially available area management software programs, such as MapInfo, uses this method for defining nodes of a region or area. Using latitude and longitude coordinate pairs allows the software to properly plot the nodes of one region in relation to the nodes of other regions. Regions, whether an exchange, wire center, or customer serving area, share a common boundary with adjacent regions of the same type (i.e., exchange with exchange, wire center with wire center). In addition, nodes of a larger area (exchange or wire center) are shared by one or more of the smaller subdividing areas (wire centers and customer serving areas within an exchange, and customer serving areas within a wire center). If the nodes of the shared boundary are not positionally identical, then a “gap” exists between the two or more boundaries.
For example, FIG. 2 is an illustration of an exemplary geographic region 200 that includes two adjacent areas, Area 1 and Area 2. Area 1 is defined by a polygonal boundary or perimeter having five sides and five nodes (a, b), (c, d), (e, f), (g, h), and (i, j). Area 2 is defined by a polygonal parameter having six sides and six nodes (k, l), (m, n), (c, d), (e, f), (g, h), and (p, q). Areas 1 and 2 share a boundary represented by the lines connecting nodes (c, d), (e, f), (g, h).
While the boundary between Areas 1 and 2 appear as a single set of lines, the software defines each area as independent area objects. As independent objects, it is possible to change the node locations of one area, resulting in a reshaping of the object without changing the shape of the other objects. If a change in the shape of one object is not matched with a corresponding change in the adjacent object, then a “gap” results. The resulting gap is unacceptable, as it violates the requirements previously set forth requiring that every part of a larger area be included in one, but only one, of the subdividing areas. However, FIG. 3 is an illustration of geographic region 200 showing a gap 302 between adjacent customer serving areas resulting from node (e, f) of Area 2 being moved to location (e′, f′). Such a situation most notably occurs when areas of different types (e.g. wire center and customer serving area) are moved because each type is typically stored on a separate layer. Subscribers of a telecommunications carrier that fall within this gap are unaccounted for in either Area 1 or Area 2. If Area 1 and Area 2 are customer serving areas in two different wire centers, then the boundary between Area 1 and Area 2 is also a boundary between two wire centers. Further, if Area 1 and Area 2 are in two different exchanges, the boundary between Area 1 and Area 2 is an exchange boundary as well as a wire center boundary.
As understood in the art, telecommunications carriers have personnel who constantly monitor for gaps caused by area planners who reshape exchange areas, wire center areas, and customer serving areas using conventional area management software programs. In the event of finding these “gaps,” the personnel must physically manipulate the area boundaries to ensure that subscribers residing within the gaps are accounted. Given the fact that typical wire center areas may have customer serving areas with over 100 nodes, tens of nodes along a shared boundary between two customer serving areas, and ten or more adjacent regions adjacent to a single customer serving area, the process for locating gaps can be tedious, time-consuming, and expensive for a telecommunications carrier.